Sanskriti
a bimonthly publication of
progressive south asian politics

Volume 6: Number 1                    December 25, 1995

Making Room for a Hybrid Space:
Reconsidering Second-Generation Ethnic Identity

As the children of post-1965 Indian immigrants move into adulthood and carve out their own personal, professional, and political spaces, their ethnic identity development is increasingly viewed as crucial to political action in Indian American communities. Yet second-generation identity is a topic, unfortunately, often too simplistically conceptualized. Simmering under questions of ethnic identity are complex issues of cultural authenticity that all too often have a conservative edge sharpened by immigrant nostalgia and , as I will discuss later, continue to have a tangible impact on the second generation. While reflecting on the subtle, and not-so-subtle, psycho-cultural aspects of second-generation ethnic identity, it is crucial to locate individual identity in wider structural contexts and to consider the ways in which class, gender, and race intersect with ethnic identity.

Of late, the model minority myth has increasingly been challenged by the growing economic heterogeneity of Indian immigrants and by less affluent second-generation youth who will have a very different experience of forming identities than their more privileged Indian American counterparts. Which raises the question: will there be a schism along class lines in the second generation, with adolescents growing up in racially diverse, working-class communities identifying more with African American/Latino youth subcultures than peers who grow up in predominantly white settings? Reflecting trends among immigrant professionals, there has been a resistance among many of their children to identifying with your of color or with South Asian/Asian American coalitions, and for some, an attempt to straddle white/non-white racial categories. Adding another layer of complexity to structural factors are the subjectivities of ethnic identity: personality, life history, family relationships, and parental attitudes toward ethnic identity.

For the second generation, identity questions often come closely wrapped in racial and ethnic layers that derive from American identity politics and youth subcultures. Belonging to an ethnic sub-culture, with visible, identifying features, is often an attractive way of forging a personal identity, especially in the context of liberal campus cultures. One must remember that exploration of ethnicity often fulfills an important function for many second-generation Indian Americans, particulary for those who grew up without being able to learn about certain aspects of Indian culture by everyday observation or instruction. Finally being able to take classes in Indian religion in college, Manjali, a young woman I interviewed, reflects, When I was thinking about my perceptions of Vedic literature, I m like, these people are priests, like, the Vedic dudes are just out of control. ... is this because I ve grown up in this culture... that I think these Vedic people are freaks, or does everybody think that the Vedic people are freaks? ... or is it that my exposure to this Western stuff has been so pro- [Western philosophy]?

While Manjali is critical of dimensions of Hindu philosopy, it is this very conscious, reflexive critique that leads to the recreation and renewal of cultural traditions in the second generation. In doing so, second-generation Indian Americans find creative ways to hybridize ethnic identities, for example, as symbolized in the fusion of remixed bhangra-dance music and bhangra culture The condition of being somewhat detached from the family culture, often due to a Eurocentric school education, and of not being able to take cultural assumptions for granted leads many second-generation youth to actively explore their ethnic identities as young adults. Manjali, not surprisingly, is now planning to spend a year in India studying health-related pilgrimages undertaken by Hindu women.

For many second-generation adolescents, across ethnic and national boundaries, there is a second migration in late adolescence or young adulthood, a geographic or psychological return to the ancestral country. This shift stems from many layers of experience, many of them imbued with emotional significance, that give rise to wishes to learn more about family history or to feel a sense of belonging. In Ameena Meer s novel, Bombay Talkie, a second-generation adolescent romanticizes India as the site to resolve her identity dilemmas: Maybe in India she d be able to straighten it all out, she thought. Maybe she d be able to find a happy medium between what her parents wanted her to do (the good Indian girl) and what she wanted to do (the bad American girl). Maybe she d figure out what it was she really wanted to be.

Manjali, a young woman I interviewed, reflects, When I was thinking about my perceptions of Vedic literature, I m like, these people are priests, like, the Vedic dudes are just out of control. ...

For other second-generation members, an Indian sojourn is tied to larger concerns about their privilege as second- generation members. Many express their desire to give back to India through public service, reversing the direction of the brain drain, if only temporarily or in hoped-for projects. This return to roots symbolically completes the cycle of migration begun by the first generation, reciprocating the material and professional contributions of Indian immigrants to the ancestral country and fostering an ongoing exchange within the Indian diaspora.

Gender and sexuality are dimensions where ethnic identity development is often fraught with complex choices. These tensions are sharpened by the fossilization of Indian cultures in immigrant communities, with parents clinging to cultural beliefs and practices from the society they left over twenty-five years ago. A young woman in Priya Agarwal s study, Passage from India: Post-1965 immigrants and their children, notes ironically: All my cousins [in India] are allowed to date and go out. They get away with things that our parents would totally forbid us to do. The incidence of arranged marriages among the second generation is another example of the petrification of cultural traditions that are more open to fluidity in India itself.

In addition, young women often receive conflicting messages from their parents and from the larger society regarding femininity and mainstream success, expectations that may be extremely difficult to reconcile. The double standards parents often uphold for daughters and sons with regard to dating and pre-marital relationships, and the tightening of control over daughters sexuality, are issues ultimately tied to immigrant parents own desire to preserve the culture of origin. Lata Mani, in Our Feet Walk the Sky: Women of the South Asian Diaspora, insightfully observes that the burden of negotiating the new world is borne disproportionately by women, whose behavior and desires, real or imagined, become the litmus test for the South Asian community s anxiety or sense of well-being.

This does not imply that second-generation males do not experience any conflict with regard to gender roles. On the contrary, males sometimes have to meet parental expectations of pursuing a prestigious occupation that may not coincide with their own career goals. Both males and females occasionally confront stereotypical images of Indians as exotic others or asexual model minority nerds that complicate issues of dating, sexuality, and friendship in adolescence, but are constructed differently depending upon the gender. A young woman I interviewed recalled, My freshman year, there was this guy in my Italian class who was in love with me because he thought I was exotic. I didn t know what to tell him... it s just like, You have no clue! I grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Indian males are judged by the standards of desirability which are often tied not too subtly to issues of power and economic privilege. Ahmed, another interviewee, suggested that South Asian males in his particular college culture have to physically resemble white males and have high socio-economic status in order to be desirable competitors for South Asian females. The ideal, I d say, Indian person for an Indian female on this campus, not for everyone, but for most people, is tall, um, very caucasian features,...has access to social opportunities, whether it s at a finals club (elite all-male college club) or whether it s enough money to go into Boston.

Emasculating stereotypes of Indian, and Asian, men sometimes provoke male resentment of the fetishization of Indian women by white men (and rightfully so!). At the same time, there are many women who resist patriarchy in their communities and link this oppression to Indian men. It s the familiar split between feminist causes and ethnic causes, and it does not help solidarity. We need the vocal and active support of more feminist Indian American men -- they re out there, I know it! -- and from women who acknowledge that Indian male sexuality is often undermined.

Across gender, queer Indian Americans deal not just with racism and exoticization in predominantly white contexts but also with homophobia from their ethnic community. Nayan Shah points out that ethnic identity often conflicts with sexual orientation for South Asian gays, lesbians (and bisexuals) who are caught between their strong need for affiliation to their families and communities and the perceptions often held by those same communities that queer identities are a threat to the cultural integrity of South Asian immigrants and that homosexuality is part of an already well defined yet adaptable arsenal of Western evils ( in A Lotus of Another Color: An Unfolding of the South Asian Gay and Lesbian Experience).

What does this discussion mean for the political orientations of the second generation as they move into the workplace, raise families, and form their own communities ? Looking even further into the future, what does this imply for the expectations they will then transmit to their children regarding ethnic and racial identity ? While acknowledging that the second generation must necessarily fashion cultural identities different from their that of their peers living in India, conservative trends that reify cultures have disturbing implications for women, religious minorities, queer communities, and any group that has a stake in challenging traditionally privileged, monolithic Indian politics.

Class, gender, sexual orientation, and racial identification are dimensions along which Indian American communities and institutions may splinter if they are not inclusive, leading to a situation where second generation Indian Americans who straddle these boundaries are often forced to choose between ethnic identification and alliances supporting other identities. We need not foster organizations and settings that support the diversity of religion, regional ethnicity, class, gender, and sexual orientation to allow second generation to maintain these multiple, hybrid identities, rather than creating conflicting, mutually exclusive allegiances.

(Sunaina Maira is a doctoral student in developmental psychology/ anthropology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.)